Nuclear experts have warned that the biggest ever bombing of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which was seized by Russia early in the war, is fraught with danger. The Kremlin repeated that statement on Monday, arguing that Ukrainian bombing could have “catastrophic” consequences for Europe. Rafael Grossi, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, has warned that the way the plant has operated under Russian forces, and the fighting around it, poses serious threats to health and the environment. Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Andriy Yusov, countered the Russian claims, saying his organization had received reliable information from various sources that Russian forces had planted explosives at the Zaporizhzhia plant to prevent an expected Ukrainian counterattack in the area. Earlier, Ukrainian officials said Russia was launching attacks from the factory and using its Ukrainian workers as human shields. The nuclear plant also came under fire last week, before Sunday’s bombing, with each side blaming the other for the attack. A missile fragment after a shelling is seen near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Russian military-controlled territory in southeastern Ukraine, in this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry’s Press Service on Sunday. (Press Service of the Russian Ministry of Defense via Associated Press) Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said on Monday that the Ukrainian attack a day earlier on the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant had caused a power outage and smoke in the switchgear facility, causing an emergency shutdown. Fire crews extinguished the fire and plant personnel reduced the power of reactors No. 5 and No. 6 to 500 megawatts, he said. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged Western powers to force Kyiv to stop attacking the plant. “The shelling of the site of the nuclear power plant by the Ukrainian armed forces is extremely dangerous,” Peskov said in a teleconference with reporters. “It is fraught with devastating consequences for vast territories, for the whole of Europe.” But Yusov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, said on Monday: “We saw the Russian bombing of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant.” He added that “if it is not so, if it does not comply with reality, the Russians can make a gesture of goodwill and hand over control of the plant to an international commission and the IAEA, if not to the Ukrainian army.” Yusov said the Russians used similar tactics at Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant when they seized it early in the war. “This is a terror and scorched earth strategy being used by the Russians before an inevitable Ukrainian counterattack in the south,” he said. WATCHES | The Ukrainian envoy warns of serious dangers in the nuclear complex:

The Ukrainian envoy warns of serious dangers in the nuclear complex

Ukraine’s ambassador to international organizations described the Russian bombing of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant and the ongoing danger at the complex, which is occupied by Russians. Russia says Ukraine bombed the plant.

Russia continues to bomb Ukraine

On the front lines of the war, the Kremlin reaffirmed on Monday that Russia will continue its military offensive in Ukraine until it achieves its goals. Ukraine’s presidential office said on Monday that the Russian military had shelled seven Ukrainian regions in the past 24 hours, killing five people and injuring 20 others. Ukrainian forces pounded Russian-held areas in the south of the country overnight, local officials said, once again hitting a strategic bridge in the southern city of Kherson. The Ukrainian mayor of Melitopol, a Russian-controlled city in the neighboring Zaporizhzhia region, said Ukrainian forces used US HIMARS missile launchers to bomb several facilities where the Russian military was stationed. Mayor Ivan Fyodorov said on Telegram that around 100 Russian soldiers were killed. His claims could not be independently verified and the Russian military did not immediately comment. Kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration of the Kherson region, said on Monday morning that Ukrainian shelling had again destroyed the Antonivskiy Bridge over the Dnieper River. The bridge, a key artery for supplies to the Russian military, has been closed in recent weeks due to earlier shelling, and plans to reopen it on Wednesday were put on hold by the latest attack, Stremusov said. Ida Svystunova, 89, looks out of a room next to her apartment, which was damaged in May by a rocket attack in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. Svistonova was sleeping in her back room when the rocket hit the front. One soldier was killed and one wounded in the room and another woman was killed elsewhere in the building. Svystunova is one of only four people living on the block. (David Goldman/The Associated Press) Russian forces also continued to shell Nikopol, a city just across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s presidential office said. Nikopol’s gas pipelines, plumbing and power lines are no longer functional and thousands of people are without electricity.

Grain ships from Ukraine arrive in Turkey

On the high seas, meanwhile, one of the first ships to leave Ukraine under a deal to unblock grain supplies and avert a global food crisis arrived in Turkey. The Turkish-flagged Polarnet docked at the port of Derince in the Gulf of Izmit after leaving the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk on Friday, loaded with 12,000 tons of corn. “This sends a message of hope to every family in the Middle East, Africa and Asia: Ukraine will not abandon you,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted. “If Russia lives up to its obligations, the ‘grain corridor’ will continue to maintain global food security.” Polarnet captain Ahmet Yucel Alibeyler highlighted the dangers still faced by grain-carrying ships trying to cross the Black Sea. “These were, of course, dangerous areas, corridors that had been cleared, demined,” he said. The Polarnet cargo ship arrives at Derince port in Turkey’s Izmit Bay on Monday, the first of ships to leave Ukraine under a deal to unblock grain supplies amid the threat of a global food crisis. (Khalil Hamra/The Associated Press) A total of 12 ships have now been authorized to sail under the grain deal between Ukraine and Russia brokered by Turkey and the United Nations — ten outbound and two bound for Ukraine. About 322,000 metric tons of agricultural products have left Ukraine’s ports, most of it corn but also sunflower oil and soybeans. Four ships that left Ukraine on Sunday are expected to dock near Istanbul on Monday afternoon and be inspected on Tuesday to make sure they are only carrying food south and no arms to Ukraine. But the grain deal is far from plain sailing. The first cargo ship to leave Ukraine, the Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, left Odessa on August 1 bound for Lebanon with 26,000 metric tons of corn for chicken feed. But it has run into a business dispute and will no longer dock in Lebanon, Tripoli’s port master told The Associated Press on Monday. Ukraine’s embassy in Beirut tweeted on Monday that the final buyer of the corn in Lebanon refused to accept the cargo due to a delivery delay beyond a contractual limit and that the shipper was now looking for another buyer for the corn.